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Attract Mode 0*: Welcome to a 'light hearted satirical post-cyberpunk FTP MMOARG sandbox toy' set in a darkly speculative universe where games won the Reality War: this is Robert H. Dylan's Philosophy of Play - expressed as art, culture, language and games. Here Robert roleplays Amateur Postmodern Theorist Robert What, performing cutting edge R&D - Big Science - into the everyday Beyond strangeness of reality / consciousness aka Alien Fiction, often expressed as Imaginary Games; those we pretend to pretend to play, andor play (/unconsciously) using andor via Imagination. As this virtual Ideas Person, Brainstormer and Theory Analyst, Robert examines player's 'Research Projects' and their underlying concepts from odd, deep left-field 'scientific' perspectives to reveal uncommon Meanings and potential. His very nonspecific skill set includes an ability to make outrageous, daring meta-cognitive leaps across the vast synaptic gaps between seemingly separate notions, perceptions and levels of/in modern Play. Robert regularly suffers from Terminal Boredom and is always looking to collaborate artistically. His favourite dream colour is blue. He likes cats; they make him sneeze. He currently requires 10 billion+1 to fully realize the intense mediated visions he's been channelling from the Near Future. There is no spoon. Thank you for playing

*Example expositionary narrative

“What’s it all about then?”: the standard philosophy test

On what to say when receiving The Default Philosophical Challenge “OK, what’s it all about, then? What’s ‘The Meaning Of Life’?”

One might consider answering in the following ways:

Deadpan-Sarcastic / Semi-Hopeful: “I was hoping you’d tell me”

Semi-Literary: “42 is a pretty good answer.. but it’s not 42″

Strictly Functional: “Never mind life, just watch the road”

Vaguely Buddhistic: ” Life is pain – and anyone who tells you differently is selling something”

Indistinctly Trashy: “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their hipsters”

Oblique / Postmodern: “Christopher Walken building Optimus Prime”

Christopher Walken building Optimus Prime

Or you could simply judo-reverse this (/false) challenge back with: “You mean you don’t know?”

Thing is, if someone asks you this question ‘seriously’, chances are they’ve been wasting their life and keep themselves busy by blowing spit-bubbles with their brain, which has been rattling around inside their breezy skull – a dried walnut in an empty biscuit tin

Consider a more-correct answer to such a provocation, whether or not the questioner is ‘trolling’ you:

Now that’s an interesting question! The meaning of life is unknown, perhaps unknowable – but the meaning of human life as it is, is unfortunately very simple. The meaning of our current human life is that it’s largely meaningless

That is, apart from the fact humanity endlessly pursues infinite absurd trivialities and seems genuinely hell-bent on ‘Amusing Itself To Death‘, another way of describing this ‘meaninglessness’ is that there are too many meanings – and they all merely forever *explain away* the question of meaning

Indeed, perhaps the question is far more interesting than any answer

Historical Notes

The story goes that Bertrand Russell was once in the back of a taxi and was asked by the cheeky cockney cabbie what ‘it’ was all about – and (despite all those awful books he wrote) he just couldn’t answer

The reason old Bertie failed this simple test was because he wasn’t a philosopher, just a prune-faced old fascist